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Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Thanks to everyone who took part in the challenge this month, we're pleased to see just how many of you embraced the twist and incorporated squares into your work. We had an astounding 37 entries this month, beating our record since the OTTBS challenges began!

Everyone who has incorporated the twist into their piece/s gets an extra entry into the draw. As I didn't mention whether particular beadweaving stitches were allowed I'm accepting cubic right-angle weave and square stitch as 'squares'.

Using Random.org to randomly choose a name from the list, the beader who is in 1st position is...

Congratulations Shirley, you're the winner of the gorgeous collection of beads from Yashma Creations!

Check back tomorrow when we'll be posting a brand new challenge for February with another fabulous prize!

Friday, 27 January 2012

As beading with seed beads is my favourite technique I have amassed quite a collection of books on the subject. But I have to say, this is one of, if not the best book I have on my shelf at the moment! With Artistic Seed Bead Jewelery, Maggie Roschyk takes you on a journey through the creation of the pieces in her book while teaching you how to translate the things you see around you into beautiful beadwork.

The first section, entitled Welcome to My World, talks about The author's creative process, where her inspiration comes from and how she chooses just the right beads for her projects. After a comprehensive look into what she keeps in her beading toolkit (and why), it’s on to the projects!

The 13 projects are varied and include many of the stitches we know and love – herringbone, peyote, brick stitch, right-angle weave and bead embroidery to name a few – but turned into wonderfully exotic and rich bracelets, cuffs, necklaces , pendants, earrings and a pin.

As you can see from the cover this isn't a book for beginners, but I think that someone with some beading experience and knowledge of the the basics could complete some of the projects with no problem. Far from being overwhelming, many of the projects are made by creating smaller components and joining them together.

The instructions for each project are comprehensive, including not only the usual supply list, clear instructions and diagrams but they also explain the inspiration behind the piece and why she chose those particular colours, beads or stitch. Among the collection of beautiful projects, my favourites include:

Helena Elements - a beautiful necklace made from square beaded components which would not look out of place around the neck of a Greek Goddess.

Blue Flame Pin - a bead embroidered brooch that employs a very interesting way of getting the design onto the beading foundation.

Poppy Pods Beaded Beads - a collection of five peyote beaded beads made with seeds and drop beads.

And of course the amazing Intergalactic Love Song necklace which features on the front cover.

Almost at the end of the book is the Techniques Review section, a handy guide to the techniques used in the projects. I particularly like the information about adding and ending thread as I find this is sometimes missing from most beading books.

The only negative I have about this book is that the author’s gallery at the end is way too small, I would have loved to have seen more of Maggie’s amazing work!

In a nutshell I think this is a fabulous book that’s full of encouragement and inspiration, glorious projects and page after page of beautiful photography.

I really wanted to complete one of the projects in the book to accompany this review, but as beading time was in short supply this month I only managed a small component! This is one of the beads from the Banded Carnelians Necklace which I really enjoyed making, even if my choice of colours leaves much to be desired ;)

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

I adore big hooped earrings, so when I saw these beauties by Cynthia Newcomer Daniel of Etsy Store Jewelery Tales, I almost swooned! These are definitely going on my list for the OTTBS Facebook group Earring challenge.

Thursday, 19 January 2012

When I saw this striking bracelet pattern by Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery on Etsy, I thought how perfect it would be in black and white for the January Challenge and of course as it is mainly made of cubes, you would even have the twist included, nice & easy! I think the diagonals would look just stunning in the strong combination of black and white.